Jury to return, deliberate facts in Bacon trial

After hearing five days of testimony, a Lucas County Common Pleas Court jury will return today to resume deliberations in the case of a Toledo woman charged with killing her infant son.

Prosecutors allege that Amanda Bacon, 26, of 504 W. Alexis Rd. bashed 6-month-old Avery Glynn Bacon’s head against a hard surface at least twice on the evening of Dec. 16, 2012, leading to his death two days later.

Throughout the trial, they portrayed her as a young woman uninterested in being a parent and frustrated over being alone all day with a colicky baby and no phone or car.

On the night baby Avery was injured, prosecutors contend, Ms. Bacon did not seek medical care for her son until after she returned from a trick at the Happy Day Motel just over the state line in Michigan with a customer who paid her $60 for sex.

“The state of Ohio would like you to believe that because Amanda Bacon chose to be a prostitute, she was a bad mother, and because she was a bad mother, she murdered her youngest son,” defense attorney Jane Roman told the jury in closing arguments Wednesday morning.

While the defense and Ms. Bacon herself, who took the stand Tuesday, pointed the finger at Frank Jones, the man she was living with at the time, prosecutors said he was merely a scapegoat.

Frank Spryszak, an assistant Lucas County prosecutor, told jurors Ms. Bacon inflicted the fatal injuries before Mr. Jones arrived home about 8:30 p.m., then quickly looked for a way to get out of the apartment and leave baby Avery with him.

She “blew up the phone” of a man who had previously hired her for sex, calling him 14 times until she finally reached him and arranged for him to pick her up about 10:30 p.m.

“Why does she leave her son in the care of the man who she alleges hurt her son while she goes out and has sex for $60?” Mr. Spryszak asked. “She does that because she’s trying to put Frank Jones in the position to be the fall guy.”

The jury began deliberating about 2 p.m.

But by 3:30 p.m., the foreman told Judge Frederick McDonald that jurors would like to return at 8:30 a.m. today to resume deliberations.

Before excusing the jury for the day, Judge McDonald answered four questions the panel posed.

Those included requests to see surveillance video from a Kroger store where Mr. Jones took baby Avery while Ms. Bacon was at the hotel, as well as portions of a lengthy videotaped interview Toledo police detectives had with Ms. Bacon, who was ultimately charged with aggravated murder, murder, and endangering children.

Ms. Roman told the jury that while Ms. Bacon may not have been the best mother, she did not harm her infant.

She asked them to give serious consideration to the testimony of former Toledoan Peggy Monroe, who told the jury that in 2003 she was living with Mr. Jones when he threw and injured her young son.

Ms. Monroe did not know Ms. Bacon and had nothing to gain by testifying, Ms. Roman said.